Southernfiction Stories

Randolph Randy Camp's Southern noir tale False Dandelions is about a band of city criminals trying to set up shop in a quiet rural town in Virginia. It's a story about the lives and dreams of underdogs, filled with romance, heartache, small town secrets and murder. Available in paperback and eBook Kindle on Amazon.

She notices things, small things. The way the dogs act. The way the man never steps past the fence line. The way her best friend starts to come undone just as her husband is due home from deployment. Two separate threads, maybe. Or maybe not. In a town where nothing bad ever happens, she's starting to wonder if something already has.

In Savannah, Georgia, reputation is everything-but the truth is what haunts you. Daniel Levine built a career on honesty, but when a ghost from his past shows up on his doorstep, he's forced to face the one case that broke him-a murder trial tied to a secret he's never confessed. As old bonds and buried guilt resurface, Daniel is caught between redemption and destruction in a Southern legal drama where nothing is black and white... especially not the law. Secrets don't stay buried in Savannah. They just grow roots.

Everyone in church thinks I'm perfect. But no one knows I just buried a body. Jalicia Jones is the pride of Kingdom Glory Tabernacle-beautiful, polite, and the daughter of the beloved Pastor Jones. But behind the angelic smile lies a dangerous obsession. Her best friend is the only person who makes her feel alive. The only person she wants. The only person she'll never let go. But her friend doesn't love her back. Worse-she likes boys. Every time someone gets too close, they end up hurt... or dead. Now Jalicia's secrets are piling up like bodies, and one wrong move could expose everything. In a town full of prayers and pretenders, how far will she go for a love that doesn't want her?

Travis Mackleroy has just moved to Louisiana, from Chicago. He wanted to escape the hustle and bustle of the city life, and spend it somewhere more laid back. He lives in Thomasville, a quaint town, 20 miles from Shreveport. However, he keeps getting pulled over by Harriet Brewster, a female state trooper for the Louisiana State Police. Travis hasn't done anything wrong, and he has a hate hate relationship with Harriet. As soon as Travis regrets moving to Louisiana, he soon develops a love interest in Harriet. He soon finds out, that she was just lonely, and needed someone to talk to. They hit it off, and Travis falls head over heels in love, Louisiana style! Cover done by @LionessRoars

There's more to life than what we see... Landry Masoner has been blind since birth. Even so, she can see better than most. Those closest to her say she's psychic, but she says she merely sees with her heart. The one person her heart didn't see coming, though, was Dawson Jones. All Dawson wanted was to make enough money over the summer to get out of the small town that was smothering the life out of him. However, working at the Masoner Farm turned out to be more than just a summer job, opening his eyes to things he didn't even realize he was looking for.

North Carolina was a wild place once. It's people were even wilder. Murder, sex, religion and death had all of us in a choke hold but I found a light. We both did and I would kill again for her.

When a freak blizzard traps a handful of strangers inside a roadside Waffle House, waitress Ruby Dean does what she always does-keeps the coffee hot and the lights on. But this storm isn't like the others. The power fails, phones die, and a quiet stranger at the counter seems to know more about salvation than any preacher in town. Through the long night, confessions spill, hearts crack open, and faith flickers back to life one cup of coffee at a time. By dawn, the storm will end-but no one inside will ever see the world the same way again. A tender, haunting story about mercy, ordinary miracles, and the stubborn light that stays on when everything else goes dark.

Short story told in five flash fiction vignettes, according to the regions of the tongue and the flavors associated with them, the whole of which make up the indescribable umani taste: bitter, sweet, sour, salt, and vanilla, the most complex spice on earth. Originally printed in the online literary magazine Revolution John, then later reprinted and featured on Medium in the literary publication Human Parts.

For as long as Laurel has known it, Bloom Springs, Alabama has been an ordinary town. Women gossip and sip mint juleps on their porches in the evenings, men nod respectfully to each other in the streets, and everybody goes to church on Sundays. Things seem perfect. Of course, nothing remains perfect for long. Suddenly, things begin going wrong for poor Laurel, and the cherry on top is that she must go see the woman Bloom Springs prefers to pretend doesn't exist: Widow Henrietta, who is said to kidnap children and set them to roast while she knits in her rocking chair, the children's screams providing the soundtrack to her needlework. Heartwarming and engaging, Winter Elliott's Enchanting will let you know that everything and everyone has wonder in them, you just have to look past their exterior.

I was supposed to smile, bow my head, and follow the plan everyone else had already written for me. Senior Sunday proved it-my name printed beside Michael's in the bulletin, our futures inked together like a promise. To the congregation, it was scripture. To me, it was suffocation. Leaving the fellowship hall wasn't a choice so much as a reflex. One moment, his little sister perched on my lap, his aunts nodding about what a fine mother I'd make. The next, I was in my Bronco, the smell of gas and honeysuckle filling my lungs for the first time in years. Freedom hummed in the tires, though I had no map and no plan-only the pull of River Road, of the swamps and moss where secrets lingered thicker than the heat. On that drive, with cicadas buzzing loud as hymns, I began to reckon with everything I'd buried: the weight of family expectations, the half-life of obedience, the ache for something larger than casseroles and choir practice. What started as an escape from one Sunday stretched into a reckoning with the whole town, with Michael, with the girl I'd been told I had to be. But cicadas don't sing forever-they shed their skins, break themselves open to survive. And so would I. A Summer of Cicadas is the story of one young woman's awakening against the backdrop of a Southern town that clings too tightly to its traditions. It's about love that stifles, roots that bind, and the unbearable, necessary act of choosing your own voice before it is silenced for good.

Samuel Johnson aka Booga Bear loves Popeye's Chicken more than anything in the world. Sweetie Babe loves to cook collard greens, but Booga Bear doesn't want to eat them. Sweetie Babe doesn't like to waste food, so she will do anything in her power to get him to eat the collard greens!

In the summer of 1963, in the quiet town of Millwood, Georgia, Edith Abbott and Walter Greene find love in the simplest moments-morning pastries, shared dreams, and fleeting glances. Edith, the bright and lively heart of her family's bakery, and Walter, a shy and introspective painter, are drawn together despite their differences. As they build a life together, their love stands strong through the years, until tragedy strikes. When Edith falls ill, Walter desperately tries to preserve her memory through his art, only to find time slowly stealing the details of her face. A poignant tale of love, loss, and the struggle to hold onto the past, this story lingers like a fading painting-beautiful, heartbreaking, and unforgettable.

With marlins, money, danger, and love on the line, prepare to be hooked! Bills invites readers on a thrilling adventure where the breathtaking beauty of the sea meets the high-stakes excitement of competitive billfishing. This gripping coming-of-age story follows Jason Baymont, a young fisherman from Destin, Florida, as he charts his own path through the unpredictable waters of life. Though he is drawn to the adrenaline-fueled excitement and glamour of catching the world's most powerful game fish-the mighty blue marlin-he must first confront his fear of disappointing his father, who expects him to take over the family's commercial fishing business. Choosing to pursue his passion, Jason takes on the dangerous role of a wireman, where a single misstep could send him overboard, dragged into the depths by a massive marlin. Meanwhile, his growing attraction to the boat owner's daughter collides with a wealthy rival's pursuit of her affection, raising tensions both on deck and ashore. PG-13 style story with mild language and light alcohol references; no explicit content.

18 year old Rally Richards is a typical high school senior - she loves her friends, her family, and a little underage drinking on the weekends. But when one too many beers at a bonfire leads to the accidental reveal of her deepest, darkest secret in front of the entire senior class, she thinks her life might be over. After all, being outed as a lesbian in front of a bunch of drunk teenagers in a small southern conservative town can't end well, can it? Rally's life is turned upside down - but in none of the ways she expected. Instead of finding herself an outcast, she lands the girl of her dreams and a whole new group of friends. But high school is never that easy, is it?

She doesn't speak about what happened. Not directly. Not yet. She writes it instead in fragments, in whispers, in red. ROOTS is not a traditional memoir. It's a body remembering. A girl vanishing. A woman returning through poems, letters, and the ghosts that won't let her go. "Some stories ain't meant to be told straight. Some got to be danced outta the bones." Told in a voice that is part stage, part prayer, part scream, ROOTS invites you to listen closely, but don't expect answers. Only echoes.

Volume Two picks up where Volume One left off with troubled Jazmin and her son, who is growing into young manhood. They are working to resolve their issues and move forward as mother and son. This volume also introduces three boys who try to define what it means to make it in America, comparing their parents' struggles with immigration and inequalities. Sara Johnson is a maid who gets by on her wits, attempting to forget her personal plight and failures of the past. Volume Two contains ten stories: A Life Interrupted (Part Two), Small Talk and Collard Greens, A Place for All, Friendship is a Very Delicate Thing, A Suitable Love, Mirrors, Days Turn Into Nights, Redemption Song, Uncle Jonas Visits and Sara Johnson Rises Again.

A heartwarming ghost story told by the ghost! Perfect for all ages. Set in South Georgia, forty years after the Civil War, "Obadiah: A Ghost's Story" is the tale of Obadiah Sampson, a carpenter's assistant who dies while helping to build a strange house for one of the town's wealthiest families, the Stanleys. Angels bar him from entering heaven and enlist him for an undefined mission. He later assumes his task is to protect the Stanleys from their arch-rivals, the Leiber family, a clan who will stop at nothing to reclaim a treasure in gold and diamonds. Obadiah soon meets the Stanleys' eight-year-old daughter, Avie, who has the unique ability to see and talk to the kindhearted ghost, and Obadiah forges a grandfatherly bond with the young girl. After a family tragedy, Obadiah learns his true task is to protect Avie at all costs. The Leibers devise multiple dastardly plans to secure the Stanley treasure. Obadiah's challenges prove more complicated as multiple threats emerge, threatening to thwart him at every turn. Can Obadiah stop the increasingly dangerous Leibers from harming Avie and find the eternal peace he craves? Or will his actions break the bonds of their friendship and cause him to remain earthbound forever?

Olivia Turner was pretty, smart, kind, God-fearing and hard working. She was the girl every family wanted their daughters to grow up to be like. That is until she made one mistake that would divide a small town and forever change the course of two families. A Planting Season: Volume One of the Cotton Chronicles, is a fictional account of the trials and tribulations of two families in rural South Alabama during the Great Depression. It is the story of strong women who find a way to succeed against all odds and in spite of their ne'er-do-well men. At times a raucous ride while at others a heart rending tale, A Planting Season has something for everyone. You will cheer for some characters while plotting the demise of others. As you read A Planting Season, bring a shovel and a tissue. You will need both! What the Experts Are Saying: Bravo! There is so much heart and soul in this story. So Southern... and Real! ~Debra Webb, USA Today Best Selling Author The opening introduction paragraph makes this instantly historical and reads easily like fiction while presenting more like light nonfiction. Setting and character descriptions are vivid... it has strong writing that creates a historical tone and narrative voice. ~Carly Watters, Literary Agent The Cotton Chronicles capture an important chapter in American history. The writing is nicely atmospheric. ~Ann Leslie Tuttle, Harlequin Senior Editor Riveting! Features well developed characters and plot you will read more than once! ~RC Finley, Author Betty McMurtry's writing is like setting a match to an Atlas rocket! ~Craig Allen Johnson, NY Times Best Selling Author of "The Walt Longmire Mysteries" I read this book in one day. My kids asked what's for dinner and I told them to order pizza. I couldn't stop reading! ~Reader TE

Allison Newton is head over heels in love with Joseph Holmes, the high school basketball player of McDaniel High School in McDaniel, Kentucky. She wants to date him, but is he even interested in her? Little does she know, Brianna Tyler, who happens to be the principal's daughter, wants to date Joseph too. With that said, Allison has some competition. Which girl will be able to win the love of a popular basketball player?